Livestrong Marathon, Austin Texas

I did it!!!
I ran marathon #2!!!
Woohoo!!!
26.2 miles!!!
(My garmin, however, tracked 26.4 but who's counting)

I ran with my mother-runner bff's.
Here we are picking up our race bibs for the marathon.

We look good & ready, don't we?
(Sonia, Connie, Me, Karen & Diane)

We heard over & over again about "the hills" in Austin.

"Yes" there were a lot of hills, however, KUDOS to our trainers at R+R Fitness.

Our Saturday long runs prepared us for the climbs.

The weather was not what we had been training in - it's been cold, wet & sometimes icy.
There was even one week that I didn't run outside at all cuz it was too cold.

THEN Spring decided to make it's debut!
It was humid & warmed up pretty quick.
There was wind too.
Easier to run with the wind pushing you from behind.
Harder to run with wind pushing against you in front.
Either way, the wind had a welcomed cooling effect.

 Race Report.
At 5k... 33:33
I was feeling good but needed a potty break a mile 8.
The lines were long so I fell behind my group by about 7-8 minutes.
I never caught up to them.
Don't be sad. :(
I had my iPod shuffle so I plugged in.

At 10M... 1:54:31
Last time I ran 10M, I ran it in 1:50:24.
I made up some time by running through some recovery walks.

At the Half, 13.1 M... 2:29:00
I ran the Rock & Roll SA Half-Marathon in 2009.
My finish time then was 3:00:33.
Pretty cool, huh?

At 20M... 3:51:12
The climbs from the start of the race up to mile 16/17 were pretty brutal.
I was so glad the route leveled out.
Small climbs but nothing like the first half of the race.
I was keeping a pretty good pace and, yes, I was getting tired.
But I could see myself finishing at the 5 hour mark!
I was on track!
This would be better & faster than my 1st marathon run in the
SA R&R Marathon 11/14/2010
just 3 months ago!!!
AND, I had taken 2 potty breaks!!!
TMI...?  Oh well :) ... it's something I gotta work on. LOL

The Finish
The last couple of miles went through the UT campus.
At the 800 meter mark, there was a final climb for almost 400 meters!
I believe we were on San Jacinto.
It was steep!  It hurt!  A lot!
Then a right turn towards Congress Ave leveled out.
I felt myself get really excited.
A left turn onto Congress Ave and I saw the finish line!!!
I sped up.  I wanted to cry.
The crowd cheered!
For ME!
For everyone, not just me, but at the time it was ALL for me :)
Finish time
5:04:46

Thank You Austin!

Here we all are after the race with these AWESOME medals!
All of us had a PR in Austin!

Diane's kiddos were way too cute.

I really like this picture.

We don't look too beat up, right?


Thank You Father
... for health
... for friends
... for the sun
... for the wind
... for water
... for gatorade
... for bananas
... for port-a-potty's
... for music
... for freedom
... for allowing me to run in a race, not aimlessly for a worldly prize,
but in a race for a crown that will last forever.
1 Cor 9:24-27